It is known in the prior art to provide an electroluminescent structure in which there is provided beneath a luminescent layer a black layer for contrast enhancement; e.g., "High Display Viewability Provided by Thin-Film EL, Black Layer, and TFT Drive," K. O. Fugate, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. ED-24, No. 7, July 1977, p. 909. It is known in the capacitor art that the effect of defects such as pinholes in a tantalum pentoxide layer may be overcome by an adjacent layer of manganese dioxide upon placing a voltage across the two layers in series; e.g., "Sputtered Manganese Dioxide as Counterelectrodes in Thin Film Capacitors", Landorf et al., Bell Telephone Laboratories, J. Electrochem. Soc. Vol. 119, No. 4, April 1972, p. 430.